Over the past three many years, you can find been a gradual decrease during the number of U.S. pilots. According bonuses into the Plane Entrepreneurs and Pilots Association (AOPA), there were 827,000 energetic, certificated pilots in 1980. By 2011, that variety had dropped to only 617,000. During that very same 30-year time period, generation of single-engine planes dropped from fourteen,000 for every year to much less than 700.

But for the previous a few a long time, AOPA has built being familiar with this declining pattern and reversing it a top rated priority. AOPA actions incorporate acquiring a community of traveling clubs, and talking out in Washington that can help retain the climbing price tag and complexity of aviation under regulate.

Luckily, 2013 numbers are indicating a optimistic upswing, depending on facts within the Common Aviation Companies Association's (GAMA) 2013 Standard Aviation Statistical Databook & 2014 Market Outlook.

Here's a look at what's been causing the pilot and production drop, and good news from GAMA's 2013/2014 aviation field report.

What's been causing the decrease?

According to a Washington Post article posted February 9 titled, “Small aviation businesses say pilot shortage could drive market into the ground,” there are a variety of factors that have contributed into the drop in pilots and output in the last decades, including rising fuel prices and heightened traveling restrictions following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

One reason is that the recent economic downturn has left less people with discretionary income. Others place much of the blame on federal regulators, whom they accuse of making it too difficult for pilots to obtain and renew their licenses, which in turn hurts small aviation businesses and the aviation market as a whole.

Many commercial pilots come from the GA pilot pool, and the global airline business will need almost a half million new commercial airline pilots over the next 20 decades, according for the Boeing Pilot and Technical Market Outlook for 2013-2032.